The Agency as Community Facilitator - a new biz dev mode or future reality?

I have been given sight of the Forrester report "The Connected Agency " Feb 8th 2008. And it spells gloom and death for the current traditional agency business model.

Definition of a CA is

An agency with a deep understanding of consumer communities, helping brands create and nurture connections, deliver targeted, on-demand messages, and network for talent and insights.

Key points and the impact on your biz dev methods are:-

Data - if you aren't deeply into collecting it (audiences as well as prospective clients) start now. Great databases, good data insight professionals and the means to interrogate with tools like DataCentre.
Communities - get into the groups online who are talking about your brands, products, clients, marketplaces. Lurk and read. Then participate. Prepare to lead the conversation. Conversational (closed loop) marketing is the future. Dialogue, listening, endless conversations not 'campaigns' will be your metrics.
Analytics - The authors particularly berate the lack of 'left-brain' mathematical and statistical skills in the industry. These are key to analytics, segmentation and customer insight. Buy in and develop these skills for your team.
Stop-Start Campaigns die and continuous customer conversations rule driven by account managers at the heart of the conversational community. Be prepared to go to your prospective brand clients and demonstrate your connections into their target audiences, what matters to the audience will drive creative not what the agency thinks up.
So start by knowing the target markets you work in, browse the blogs, forums, message boards and listen carefully. [If you don't work in a niche, get one. Fast]
Use this online audience for research, find your early connectors, mavens, critics, UGC creatives and make friends with them. Test campaign ideas on them.
Have your own "private" marketing funnel that can generate early WOM adoption or buzz. Not got one? Give me a call.
Start planning initiatives (not campaigns) to that audience group from a range of brands - who all want the same audience. Force collaboration among brands but driven by customer needs.
Beware auctions. They will grow and the lowest price point will probably win. If you are not yet offering a low cost solution to your clients, find a way to deliver it. (ideas: use young staff as training, outsource to lower cost locations [USA? China, India, Australia, NZ] and find ways to use technology to streamline process and use fewer people)

[and they used the word 'nonfungible' that according to my Dictionary doesn't exist! Now that's leading edge progress.]

Media planning works on prices driven by the nonfungible metrics of audience, circulation, and page iews, complicating the decision about where marketers should allocate media budgets.

Also posted on creativeagencysecrets.com